Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
